Much of the repair and maintenance of large industrial engines must be performed "on location" at the engine installation due to the sheer size and weight of the engines. These engines range in size from 10 to 20 feet and upward in length and from 35,000 to 65,000 pounds and upward in weight. Many of the maintenance and repair procedures for these engines require positioning of the crankshaft and related components in a particular relationship relative to one another. Some maintenance or repair procedures further require access to the crankshaft; for example, during the removal of a connecting rod from the engine. Additionally, it is often required to incrementally rotate the flywheel to align the various couplings between the engine and generators, for example.
To rotate the crankshaft and connecting rod to a desired position, a manual barring device is typically provided at or near the flywheel of the engine that permits incremental rotation and, preferably, locking of the flywheel and crankshaft. A removable access panel fastened to the lower portion of the engine block permits a user to examine the crankshaft and its position, and repair or replace the connecting rod for example. However, due to the size of the engine, a user cannot simultaneously observe and manually advance or reverse the flywheel and crankshaft. Instead, the user must estimate the degree of rotation required while observing the crankshaft through the access port, then walk to the barring device and manually advance, or reverse, the flywheel the estimated degree of rotation. This procedure is repeated until the crankshaft is positioned at the desired degree of rotation.
What is needed is an engine barring system that permits a user to simultaneously observe and manually advance, or reverse, the rotation of the flywheel and crankshaft. Preferably, such a system would be powered, rather than manually wrenched by a user. Ideally, such a system would include an easily portable controller to control crankshaft rotation remote from the on-engine barring device.